1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to record medium cassettes for use in video tape recorders (VTRs) and in video cassette recorders (VCRs) and to a recording and reproducing apparatus for such record medium cassettes and, more particularly, to record medium cassettes for recording and reproducing digital signals and apparatuses for such cassettes.
2. Description of the Background
The present invention has the purpose of providing a means for dubbing, having a function capable of communicating information recorded in a record medium cassette, which either supplies various kinds of information particular to the record medium cassette to a recording and reproducing apparatus and records various kinds of particular information or provides preset particular information to another apparatus. This invention also has the purpose of providing the pertinent recording and reproducing apparatus.
Various kinds of information particular to a tape cassette, such as a record medium cassette, for use in a VTR or a VCR, such as the length of the tape, the remaining playing time of the tape, whether the tape contains recorded information or not, whether it is a rental video, and the like, are necessary for preventing important recorded data from being destroyed, for achieving accurate recording, for preventing unfair use of the cassette, for example, by recording the number of times the cassette has been dubbed, and the like.
Accordingly, it is common practice to have such particular information written on a predetermined portion of the tape and to change record information or add new information when recording or reproduction is finished on a tape cassette loaded in a recording and reproducing apparatus, or when a tape cassette is taken out of a VTR or a VCR, to thereby store such particular information. As a means for reading such various kinds of information, a cassette having recognition holes formed in the rear face of the cassette at both left and right ends thereof is being utilized.
The recognition holes are a plurality of recognition holes c, as shown in FIG. 16, formed at specific locations in the back side b of the record medium cassette A at both left and right sides of the rear end thereof to indicate such information as the type of and properties of the record medium cassette.
Each of the plurality of recognition holes is assigned the task of indicating a particular item. For example, one recognition hole c is assigned the task of indicating the type of the magnetic tape, another recognition hole c is assigned the task of indicating the thickness of the magnetic tape, and so on.
When the record medium cassette A is loaded in a recording and reproducing apparatus, insertion pins of switches provided in the recording and reproducing apparatus corresponding to the recognition holes c read the information indicated by each recognition hole c according to the depth of insertion of the pin in the recognition hole c.
There are also such record medium cassettes which do not use such recognition holes but instead have a memory mounted thereon to store such information of the record medium cassette as the type of magnetic tape and whether or not the cassette is a recorded cassette or a rental cassette.
In the case of the record medium cassette having such a memory mounted thereon, it is possible to store record information such as the contents of the recorded video, in addition to the above described type and property of the tape, in the memory. Hence, such information as the contents of the recorded video can be quickly retrieved according to the record information.
In the copying of the contents of a pre-recorded video by dubbing, it has been impossible to copy also the data in the memory of the record medium cassette having the memory mounted thereon. While the contents stored in the memory of such a record medium cassette must correspond to the contents stored in the record medium, the contents of the memory after the dubbing have not matched the contents stored in the record medium. Accordingly, it has been necessary to rewrite the contents of the memory after the dubbing operation.
Thus, there has been a problem to be solved, that is, it has to be made possible to communicate record information in a record medium cassette to another apparatus so that, after the dubbing, the dubbed contents of the recording and the contents of the memory match each other.